Go west

"Mind you, I was in New York a couple of weeks ago..."   The clues were there -  this is from Mark Thompson's valedictory speech to the Royal Television Society in March this year.

The Guardian says he's in talks with the New York Times, where the editor's chair has been empty since December. In a rather odd construction, the paper reports "A source not connected to Thompson said he had had two meetings in London over the past four weeks about the vacant New York Times Company chief executive role – and that the meetings appeared to be part of a "co-ordinated attempt" by the US newspaper publisher to hire Thompson".


Mark's been in and out of New York over his BBC career, meeting his future wife Jane Blumberg in the 1980s during a spell in the BBC's offices in the Rockefeller Center.  In October 2010, he chose to voice his concerns about the News International move to take over all of BSkyB on the American tv show hosted by Charlie Rose. He got a full hour, and at the time we mused on Thommo's future career.  On the same visit, he appeared on the MSNBC show, Morning Joe - dressing down somewhat, playing the game, and yet rewarded with a duff caption. Thankfully the headhunters still seem to have tracked him down.



Spookily, in November last year the BBC broadcast a documentary called "Deadline: The New York Times".